


The Roads We Cross

by Yaxxm



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Angst, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gay Keith, Lots of Angst, M/M, bi lance, broganes, but a happy ending for sure, im not cruel, rest of voltron crew will come, shallura will come, shiro and keith are brother, shiro is a badass
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-29
Updated: 2017-01-31
Packaged: 2018-09-20 17:58:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9503426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yaxxm/pseuds/Yaxxm
Summary: Shiro and Keith have been together since the start, they are brothers after all. But when Shiro suggests they save an unknown tanned boy with ocean eyes Keith has no idea how much his life will change.Or they save Lance and the pining™ begins





	1. Chapter 1

When the zombie apocalypse hit it was every man for himself, it was kill or be killed. Keith was lucky enough to have his brother, Shiro, but others weren’t so lucky. Trusting people in a world like this was basically suicide, so when his brother proposed they help someone who was unknown Keith wasn’t exactly in agreeance. 

“Keith, we can’t just let someone die,” Shiro whispered as he could see the tanned man backing up further towards the alleyway wall. The two of them were at the edge of the alleyway peaking in from the barren sidewalk, they had been stopped when they heard the man’s shouts. 

“He could kill us, we can’t risk it, there are only four of them anyways. He can handle it,” Keith scowled, peaking in behind Shiro, he knew that he could take 4 zombies if he had to, so why should they help this guy. “Just let natural selection do it’s thing,” 

“This isn’t natural selection Keith, I’m helping him whether you like it or not,” Shiro was gone in an instant pulling out his knife, slowly creeping up on the zombies. Keith let out a small groan and followed him in for backup, sure he didn’t agree but he wasn’t just gonna let his brother go in there alone. 

Keith watched as Shiro took down the zombies one by one with the knife, and reached out his prosthetic arm to the tanned boy who was crouching against the wall. Why didn’t he try to fight? It wasn’t like it was a hoard, it was 4 zombies?

“You okay, buddy?” Shiro asked, with his arm still out. Keith could see the hesitation on his face before he grabbed the prosthetic and hoisted himself up. 

“Y’know I could be better, thanks for the help,” The man sighed, dusting himself off with a small pained smirk. “A group of raiders got to me a few hours back and stole all of my stuff, they call themselves ‘The Galra’ or something like that.” 

“The Galra?” Shiro asked, his eyes widening as he turned to look at keith. Keith instantly knew the group and a sour taste was put in his mouth, if they were nearby they needed to leave now. Shiro and Keith didn’t exactly have a good standing with them. 

“In that case, we are leaving, let’s go Shiro,” Keith got out, turning on his heel, he didn’t want to stick around if the group was nearby. 

“Wait, why are you bleeding?” Keith stopped in his tracks and turned back when he heard his brother’s words, he finally noticed the blood that was starting to stain the tanned man’s shirt. He must not have noticed, and a part of him started to feel a little bad. 

“Yeah those guys that took my stuff managed to cut me pretty bad, but it’s nothing I can’t handle,” The man got out, swaying a little into Shiro. He had clearly lost a lot of blood and Keith knew that Shiro wasn’t going to just let him go on his own now.  
“Nope, you are gonna come with us, we have first aid supplies back at our hideout and we can patch you up,” Shiro spoke as he hoisted one of the man’s arms around his shoulders to keep him steady. “Keith, watch my back, I don’t have much access to my weapons like this.” 

“Shiro -,” Keith started, worry laced in his voice. He didn’t like the sound of this. Bringing someone new to their secret hideout, it was called a secret hideout for a reason. It was secret, no one knew about it. But here shiro was just bringing in a complete stranger. 

“Keith, I won’t ask again,” Keith knew by that voice that it was time to shut up. His brother didn’t exactly have a short temper but he had his moments of frustration and now was one of them. He could hear it in his voice and he silently walked behind the two and kept watch, looking in all directions to make sure there were no threats. Keith wasn’t exactly the best person for this though, because he was known to be an awful shot. He was really only skilled in close combat so he hoped there would be no interruptions. 

When they finally got back to the hideout he could see that the man was shocked, their hideout was actually rather elaborate and they had spent a lot of time keeping it hidden. It was 15 minutes out from the small town in the middle of the woods and it was nearly impossible to find. The thick bushes and trees made their shack almost invisible to passers and no one was dumb enough to venture into the woods, with the fear of getting lost. Shiro and Keith knew these woods like the back of their hand, so when they went hunting or fishing it was easy for them to find their way back. 

“This place… did you guys build this?” The man asked, looking around as Shiro placed him onto one of the cots in the corner of the room.

“Mostly,” Keith deadpanned as he started to look for the medical supplies while Shiro began to apply pressure to the wound. “We mainly built the security measures like the leave blankets so that no one would find us, but I guess that’s out the window now,” He gave a glare to the man as he handed Shiro the medkit.

“I wonder what crawled up his ass,” The man groaned in a whisper, looking at the floor while Shiro picked through the kit. Keith felt his anger well up and before he could think he had the collar of the man’s shirt balled in his fingers while Shiro watched with wide eyes.

“Shiro is the one that chose to help you, you little brat.” Keith gritted. “I, personally, wanted to let you die and right about now I still do, so how about you shut the hell up, before I make that cut deeper.” 

Keith felt a hand on his shoulder and looked over at Shiro who had a worried, yet stern expression. He sighed and looked back to the man who had wide eyes and let go of the collar pushing the male back a bit before storming out of the cabin. But moments later the door flew open and he grabbed his walkie talkie, which they used to keep in contact. He was mad, but it was just dumb to go out alone without communication.

+++

Lance, the man they had helped, was still wide eyed from what had happened. He hadn’t expected the man to react so harshly and he made a note to never say anything about him under his breath again. Lance would deny it if anyone ever asked, but Lance was a little afraid of Keith now, he didn’t seem like someone he wanted to mess with. He even had the edgy hair to match his attitude. 

“My brother, is a little untrusting if you couldn’t tell.” Shiro sighed as he lifted Lance’s shirt and started to dab at the wound. It had stopped bleeding, but it was best to disinfect and cover it before any infection started.

“You know I couldn’t tell,” Lance joked, groaning a bit as Shiro dabbed a little hard to get into the cut. “I don’t blame him, “ Lance admitted, hunching over a bit. “I would have left myself to die too, I’ve been alone this whole time. You really saved my ass back there, I would be dead right now.”

“When I lost my arm I wished I had someone who jumped in to help, but as you can see that didn’t happen.” Shiro joked, his face falling a bit. “I don’t like to see others in the same situation.”

“How did it happen?” Lance asked, quickly covering his mouth, feeling some regret. “I’m sorry - I,”

“It’s fine.” Shiro laughed, flexing his prosthetic arm. “It was a long time ago, This baby is a constant reminder to never try to defeat a horde by yourself. I got bit.” Shiro admitted. “I was shocked at first, but I knew I couldn’t just die yet. I couldn’t just leave Keith, so I took the sharpest object I could find… and well you can imagine the rest.” 

“W.. woah.” Was all Lance could manage to get out. Shiro was like a god to Lance at this point, he was star stuck to say the least. “That’s.. Well terrible, but really cool.” 

“Yeah, it was really hard to get used to, and trying to makeshift a prosthetic arm was a bitch, but Keith and I managed. Shiro had a smile on his face and Lance wasn’t going to lie his face felt rather warm. He was about to respond, but they were both cut from the silence when they heard Keith’s voice over the walkie talkie. 

“Uh, Shiro, I need you at the lake now, like right now.” Lance watched as Shiro grabbed the walkie with furrowed eyebrows, Lance could see the worry on his face. 

“There are 10 of them, I don’t even know where they came from, but I’m kind of in a tree right now. I don’t know how much longer it will hold though…” Keith's voice was a little frantic and Lance could feel his own heart speeding up, 

“I need to go, can I trust you?” Shiro asked, placing a hand on Lance’s shoulder. Lance gave a quick nod with wide eyes and handed Shiro the gun that was sitting on the table closest to Lance. 

“I’ll patch myself up, you can trust me. I promise.” Lance’s expression was serious and when he saw the stern looks on Shiro’s face soften he knew he had gotten his point across. Lance was not one to double cross. He didn’t want to be like the raiders who had taken everything from him. As Shiro left he quickly grabbed the medkit and searched for some ointment, he knew it would sting but he powered through it and got it into the cut, hissing a little and recoiling from the pain. After he had gotten through that he placed gauze on the cut and wrapped it in bandage. He put the medkit aside and sighed when he looked around, This place almost felt homey, when he looked at the side table beside the cot he was on he could see a dusty framed photo of what looked like Shiro and Keith as children with their parents. Lance’s heart started to ache as he remembered his family, but he was very quick to push that aside. He wonder what had happened to their parents, but it wasn’t hard to come to a conclusion. Everyone went out the same way. You either got bitten, or killed. 

As Lance sat around he just took in all that was see in the cabin. He could see they had a fair amount of food and a hefty range of weapons, it was shocking how these two were so successful. It always made him wonder how he may have gotten by if he had stuck with a friend, or with one of his brothers. After almost 15 minutes Lance was starting to grow worried, he didn’t know how far the lake was but he didn’t think it would take this long for Shiro to go and bail him out. Lance looked around and spotted a gun on the table and chewed on his lower lip as he got up and grabbed for it. He didn’t know if this was a good idea but he wanted to help. He grabbed his jacket that had been thrown on the floor when they had got in and made sure the gun had ammo. When he got out he was thankful to see Shiro’s boot marks in the mud and moved as quick as he could, making sure not to lose the tracks. After what seemed like 5 minutes of running Lance reached the lake and saw what was taking them so long. The zombies were all dead now, but they were replaced by Galra group members who were holding them captive. Keith was being pressed against the dead tree, while Shiro was being pushed into the mud. He recognized them as the group that had taken everything from him and even saw his sniper rifle on the back of one of the males backpacks. Sure it wasn’t a compact weapon but it was useful for other scenarios, and besides Lance loved to show it off to the hot guys and girls he would chat up on travels sometimes.

“Seems like there is a lot of people to raid in this town.” One of the men smirked as they pushed Shiro farther into the mud. “These two seem loaded, all we have to do it find their base, let’s start searching.” Lance ducked behind a tree as one of the members walked towards him, there were only three of them, but they were well armed, and if they took you by surprise they would easily have the upper hand. As the man walked by Lance he quickly grabbed the man and wrapped his arms around his neck, snapping it quickly. Usually there would be remorse, but these guys were the ones that double crossed him, so he could ignore any guilt. The others saw their friend drop to the ground and as they loosened their grip Lance saw Keith disarm the person who was holding him. Keith was quick to plunge his knife into the Galra’s chest but his victory was short lived when he turned to see the last man holding a gun to Shiro’s head as he pushed him farther into the mud. Lance could see the panic on Keith’s face and Lance pulled out his gun and aimed, he had to get this right. He had a good aim, but this was crucial. 

“If you do anything he d -.” Lance cut him off with a loud bang, and moments later the man was on his side with blood seeping from his head. He saw Keith breath out a sigh of relief and quickly ran over, ignoring Keith’s wide eyes as they both helped Shiro up. 

“That, that shot was incredible.” Keith gaped, as he stared at Lance who had a large smirk on his face. 

“They don’t call me Lance, the sharp shooter for nothing,” Lance laughed as he walked over to the dead body that had his sniper rifle. “I’ll take this back, thank you very much.” 

As lance threw the gun over his shoulder both Shiro and Keith were staring in awe, and it was starting to make Lance blush. He never really got praised for his shooting skills, but now he was making people speechless it seemed. 

“Lance, you really came through.” Shiro spoke, as he nudged Keith’s arm. 

“Yeah, thanks.” Keith quickly spoke, as he avoided eye contact. Lance let out a short laugh but was cut off when Keith spoke again. “Also, I uh, I’m sorry for earlier.” 

Lance nearly felt his heart stop when he saw the look on Keith’s face, His face was flushed from embarrassment and Lance could feel his skin starting to get goosebumps. Keith was like god tier hot, and he didn’t seem to notice till now. He thought that maybe it was the mullet that had thrown him off. Lance had to gulp and turn away before he could even speak. 

“Yeah well, I hope you learn to trust me more Samurai,” Lance got out voice crack included, quickly walking away from the sounds of Keith groaning and Shiro laughing. He may be a little fucked here, if he starts to fall for more than Keith’s looks.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> beta reader: [raventhefae](http://www.raventhefae.tumblr.com)
> 
> THEY HELPED ME SO MUCH IM SO HAPPY ANYWAYS PLS ENJOY!!

Lance didn’t want to admit it, but he didn’t want his time with Keith and Shiro to end. While Keith and Lance were still quite distanced Shiro made Lance feel like family, and he was dreading the day when they would tell him he needed to leave. He knew it was coming, like it always had. Everytime Lance had met people they would turn him away, and he couldn’t deny that it hurt a little bit. He really liked hearing stories about Keith and Shiro’s family, and about adventures they had went on. Sometimes Shiro even went into some embarrassing moments from Keith’s past. Which were personally Lance’s favourite because he had grown rather fond of teasing Keith whenever he got the chance.  
A week had passed already, and when Lance was called into the hidden shack from cutting up some firewood Lance started to get anxious. They were going to tell him he needed to move on, and leave. He knew it. He kept replaying the scenario in his head. He was used to being alone, it wouldn’t be that bad. That’s what he kept telling himself, but soon Shiro’s hand was waving in front of his face. He quickly out of his daze and looked at both Keith and Shiro who had concerned expressions. He cleared his throat and let out a small apology, letting Shiro repeat himself.

“I want you and Keith to go on a run, I go with Keith everytime, and now that you’re here I get a break,” Shiro laughed out. Lance let a smile set on his face when his fears were proven wrong and he turned to look at Keith who had a scowl on his face. Lance could tell Keith hated him, and part of him understood, but another part of him was just annoyed. Lance had saved him and his brother, why was he still so bitter?

“Just stay out of my way and we’ll be fine.” Keith got out as he grabbed his knife and gun off the counter, putting them into his belt.

Lance groaned and grabbed his weapons, the walkie talkies and a backpack before following Keith out. He didn’t understand why Shiro thought this was a good idea, but he supposed he should trust the man. Who knew maybe him being alone with Keith might sparking something in their weird, rivalry/enemy relationship.

It was silent as they walked, but it wasn’t an awkward silence, it was peaceful. Lance took in all the greenery that had started to grow up the buildings and a smile made it’s way onto this face. Sure he missed how things used to be, but the beautiful scenery of nature taking back what was rightfully hers always brought something out of Lance. He had grown up in Cuba as a child, surrounded by natural scenery and the ocean, but when his family had moved to one of the southern states for work that had all faded away, so this brought Lance back to some of his childhood memories. 

After a few minutes Lance caught himself staring at the back of Keith’s head. His hair was tangled, and greasy and the sight made Lance cringe. He may not be able to keep up his skin routine like he had when things were normal, but he could afford to backpack some shampoo and wash his hair in a lake from time to time. He made a mental note to try and find shampoo if they passed any type of drugstore. It was easy to find, because there were a lot of people who didn’t see it as a necessity, but Lance thought otherwise. He always tried to stay as clean as possible, the last thing he wanted was his face to break out. One always has to look good even in the event of an apocalypse

“I say we split up.” Keith spoke as he stopped in his tracks, causing Lance to bump into him from behind. “We can get more that way.” 

Lance raised an eyebrow as Keith turned to look at him, he tensed a bit at the close proximity but he was quick to ease up. He needed to get a grip or something.

“Alright, but take this so we can still talk at least.” Lance quickly reached into the bag and handed Keith one of the walkie talkies and watched him as he walked away. Keith was the opposite of what Lance was usually into. He was an edge lord, he would bet everything he owned that Keith was a MCR fan. When he started to picture it a small laugh escaped him. He wondered if Keith was always this cruel. He frowned a bit when he realized that Keith had probably gone through a lot ot be so untrusting. 

He finally started to make his way around the area, and as he did he noticed that a lot of the clothing stores still had clothes lying around. He couldn’t help but walk up to the window and give a peak. Lance could afford to be a little selfish sometimes, besides who didn’t want free clothes. He quickly stepped through the broken glass doors, avoiding the jagged edges and started to take a peak. He went through some of the racks and most of the clothes were for females, but he finally got to the male section and dug through the piles. The store had clearly been raided, but not enough for everything to be gone so Lance wanted to see what he could find. Clothes were important he told himself. This is just as important as what Keith was up to. 

Lance sighed after a few minutes of looking there was nothing really of value that Lance could pick up for the others, like jackets or sweaters but something caught the corner of his eye before he exited the store. He looked over and saw a black shirt that had some sort of red marking on it and Lance could distinguish the letters clearly on the shirt. He had literally found an MCR shirt. Lance had to cover his mouth as he jogged over to the shirt that was hung over a bar. He lifted it up and beamed when he realized it was big enough to fit him. He knew exactly who he would give this too. 

“Hey, any luck?” Keith asked over the walkie causing Lance to jump a bit. He quickly folded the shirt and threw it in his backpack before exiting the building. He realized he should probably actually help search for useful supplies. 

“Uh, nah not yet I only went into the one store though.” He admitted. “What about you, mullet man.” Lance laughed when he heard Keith growl over the device. 

“Don’t call me that, make yourself a little useful and come to the drug store down the road I… may...perhaps...need your help.” Keith admitted, almost a whisper towards the end.

“Woah, the great Keith needs my help?” Lance teased, already making his way down the sidewalk. 

“Shut up, I think I found something big. “ 

Lance quickly entered the drugstore, but when Keith was nowhere to be seen he called out for him, only to be met with a small push on his back and a small yell. Lance let out a yelp and turned around, hand on his knife, before realizing it was actually Keith who had scared him. Keith had a small grin on his face and Lance would be blushing if he wasn’t trying to evade a heart attack.

“Keith, don’t do that.” Lance growled, placing a hand on his heart as he turned back to face the back of the store. He could hear Keith giggling and he let out another annoyed groan trying to hide his now apparent blush. He would just have to get Keith back even worse. 

“Okay, but seriously I think I’ve found something big,” Keith explained, grabbing Lance’s arm and dragging him to the back of the store, Lance didn’t look away from the spot Keith was holding and gulped a bit. Keith had scared him, and now he was holding his arm. This was odd when did he get so comfortable?

“I think there was some sort of group that was holed up in that backroom,” Keith pointed, his hand falling from Lance’s arm. “There are a few zombies in there, but if we can kill them we get the stash and we are good for months.”

“Okay, but we probably shouldn’t just run in we should have a plan.” Lance proposed, leaning against the stores front counter. “I saw we makeshift a rope out of cloth and then pull it open from afar, then we can see how many there are and we have the time to make a run for it.” 

“That’s… not actually a bad idea. But where are we going to get the cloth?” 

Lance simply smirked and began to back away from his spot giving keith a second to catch on and follow him. They arrived back at the clothing store and Lance could see the annoyance on Keith’s face from a mile away. 

“You came here first didn’t you.” Keith deadpanned, looking at Lance from the corner of his eye. Lance chuckled a bit out of nervousness and quickly started to gather up clothes that could be tied together. It wasn’t long before they were back to the drugstore ready to tug on the cloth to open the door. Lance had the best aim of of the two so Keith was the one pulling. Lance quickly jogged to the door with his gun in one hand and placed his other on the doorknob. He looked at Keith who was grinning a bit and quickly unlocked the door and using a bobby pin he had found. He had learned from his older sisters, because they always used them to break into the liquor cabinet, or the sweets safe. The sweets safe was essential for a household of 8 people. 

As the door flew open Lance readied himself for the zombies, but he was shocked when nothing appeared. He looked to Keith with a raised eyebrow and shrugged but when he turned back around he was met with a sharp yell from Keith and a zombie inches from his face. He threw his hands onto the shoulders of the walker and pushed as hard as possible, but all his fingers did were sink into the rotting flesh. He cringed a bit and reached for his gun, but by the time he had gotten it out there was already a knife tip sticking out of the zombies forehead. Causing the pushing to stop. Lance stumbled back and fell landing on his tailbone with a soft thud. He was breathing heavily as he tilted his head back, but he was brought right back into action when he started to see more zombies emerge from the room. There were 5 of them, and when Lance was finally up to help they got through them fairly easy. Once everything was clear both lance and Keith gave a sigh of relief. Lance was still out of breath and after a few moments he felt a hand on his shoulder, and looked back to see Keith giving him a worried look. 

“That was a close call, you okay?” Lance eye’s got a little wider at the question and Lance simply shrugged his hand off and gave a small chuckle. His heart was already beating fast the last thing he needed was keith getting in his personal space.

“Nothing I can’t handle.” Lance beamed, finally stepping into the backroom of the drugstore. He could hear Keith scoff, but he ignored it as he started to load his back with the canned food that lined the shelves. Sure Lance had almost got bitten, but they got at least a month's worth of food out of it, so he really couldn’t complain. As he shoved things into his bag he spotted some shampoo on the rack and was quick to snatch it. He was going to force Keith to wash his hair if it was the last thing he did. 

“Y’know last time you said that you nearly passed out, and Shiro had to carry you back to our hideout,” Keith laughed packing his bag, Lance huffed and closed his bag Keith was finally starting to get comfortable with Lance, and a part of him was nervous. He was used to a Keith that didn’t want him around and now Keith was here joking with him. 

+++

Keith didn’t know when he had gotten so comfortable with Lance being around, but he made it so easy. He would never admit it but Lance was a really funny guy, and he was really caring. Shiro would sit and tell Lance boring stories and he would sit there with a smile the whole time. It was really endearing and Keith was happy Shiro had someone to joke with. He wasn't exactly the most fun to be around. Sure they could joke because they were brothers, but a new person was probably what Shiro needed. 

As they walked back to the cabin Keith could hear Lance humming from behind him, and he didn’t know the song but it was upbeat and it brought a smile to his face. Lance was always so cheerful and it was almost shocking due to the state of the world. Lance wasn’t bitter like other people, and he didn’t have ulterior motives, like Keith had believed a few days ago. Lance had really proven himself in such a short amount of time and Keith found himself enjoying the time they spent together, even if it was seldom. 

When they finally got back Shiro was shocked at the turn out of the trip and he gave the two of them a lot of praise. Lance was literally beaming from it and Keith just shook his head at the whole situation. Lance seemed to always get excited when Shiro gave him praise of complimented him and that got Keith thinking. Did Lance have the hots for his brother? At the thought Keith felt a little weird, and tried to push it down but the thought stayed. They spent a lot of time together and Keith could have sworn he heard Lance tell Shiro a story about a past boyfriend a few days ago. He had to be overthinking this. Lance wouldn’t like Shiro would he? He watched as the two joked and he felt his chest tighten. He was really confused with what he was feeling right now. If Lance did somehow like his brother he guessed he would have to be okay with it, but at the same time he didn’t really feel good about the thought. 

After a few minutes Keith was met with a strangled laugh and looked over to see Lance blushing and Shiro holding up a black shirt. He furrowed his eyebrows and felt his chest tighten once again, did Lance seriously get Shiro a shirt in that store. Keith looked away and kept his face low, he didn’t want to make his annoyance too obvious. 

“I can’t believe you saw this and you’r first thought was Keith.” Keith’s head shot up and he saw that Shiro was holding the shirt towards him, with tears in his eyes from laughing. Lance was beside him hiding his head in his hands and Keith finally took in what the shirt was. It was MCR. In an instant he was up out of his chair and ripping the shirt from Shiro’s hands, cradling it like he was about to lose it forever. 

“Holy shit Lance, how did you find this in that shitty store?” Keith asked scanning the shirt. “This is a concert shirt too, oh my god.” 

“So you like it?” Lance finally asked, peeking through his fingers. 

“Are you kidding, this is going with my blade collection.” Keith beamed.

Keith sent a glare to Shiro when he literally had to cover his mouth he was laughing so hard. His brother just didn’t understand. The blades were collectors items, they were special. He scoffed and folded up the shirt placing it into a chest beside his cot, and looked back to see Lance still hiding his face. He wondered why Lance was still so embarrassed, but he shrugged it off. He was just feeling happy about the shirt he had gotten. And he was even happier that Lance had picked it up thinking about him. 

Keith felt his face heat up, and stomach flip a little at the thought, He may or may not be a little bit screwed, and it would only get worse from here.

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr:[yaxxm](http://www.yaxxm.tumblr.com)
> 
> i draw too and am overall klance trash
> 
> this is also not prood read so please just ignore all mistakes :')


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